


Familiar Faces in Strange Places

by Morning66



Category: Boy Meets World
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29190021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning66/pseuds/Morning66
Summary: Morgan surges forward because she's tired of pretending she hasn't known for years how her brother feels about Shawn Hunter. "He's in love with you, idiot," she hisses.(Or, Morgan tries to talk some sense into Shawn in Hawaii.)
Relationships: Shawn Hunter/Cory Matthews
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Familiar Faces in Strange Places

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends!!!!!! :))

Morgan's wondering if this whole trip was a bad idea when she sees him, standing on the half lit beach, camera trained on a group of palm trees.  
  
It'd been her friend Jenna's idea, a spring break trip for the ages. Jenna had an aunt in Hawaii who'd let them stay at her place free, she'd said, so all they'd only have to pay for was the plane tickets. It'd sounded fun in December when the freezing temperatures at Penn State were leaving Morgan's face and fingers tinged red and raw.  
  
It'd sounded less fun in February when Jenna got a boyfriend and the girls trip to Hawaii turned into a pseudo honeymoon with Morgan as a third wheel.  
  
Now, Jenna's dragging her boyfriend towards a nearby bar, fake clutched in her other hand and Morgan's trailing along behind, wondering if she should just go back to the aunt's house and do a jigsaw puzzle.  
  
Letting the gap widen between them, Morgan pauses and stares out towards the beach. The night air is warm on her skin, the wind causing her summer dress to push against her legs and Morgan takes in the beach, beauty at its finest. There's a group of twenty somethings around a fire pit fifty feet down and, about fifteen feet away, the man taking pictures.  
  
She might not have recognized him if it weren't for the jacket, large and leather and so eerily reminiscent of the one he used to wear, a decade ago and a thousand miles away.  
  
She takes a step forward. "Shawn?"  
  
He turns then and she knows for sure it's him. His hair is shorter, his chin covered in a stubble that had never been there before, and his eyes are darker, but it's him. Shawn, who spent weeks living at their house, who spent countless afternoons and dinners around their kitchen table, is nearly as recognizable as Cory or Eric  
  
Shawn blinks and lets out a surprised, "Morgan?"  
  
Morgan hugs him then, quick, the camera between them digging into her stomach. Nothing like those long, lingering hugs he and Cory used to do in common areas of the house that left her mom looking away, her dad looking at them funny.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she asks, nose twitching up.  
  
Shawn gives her a sheepish smile. "Travel photographer, if you'd believe it," he says, gesturing towards his camera. "You?"  
  
"Spring break," she answers as an explanation, turning to look at where he had had his camera pointed. "You realize the ocean's over there, right?"  
  
Shawn shakes his head and murmurs something she can't make out but hears brat in. "It's artistic."  
  
Morgan snorts. "Who pays you to take photographs anyway?"  
  
Shawn smirks. "Hit The Road."  
  
"Seriously?" Hit The Road is actually cool, though she doesn't tell Shawn that.  
  
"Not too shabby, huh?"  
  
"For you, maybe," Morgan says. She's got to give him some trouble as an almost little sister.  
  
Shawn rolls his eyes and tucks his camera in his bag. "I'm done here. You want to...?"  
  
"Get ice cream?" Morgan fills in, not letting the offer hang.  
  
The thing about being the youngest (or at least being the youngest until your mom has an oops baby) is that you pick up tidbits of information as a kid. Maybe you don't understand them then, but you save them, tuck them away for when you do understand them and can get a full picture.  
  
All that said, Morgan knows better than to take Shawn Hunter to a bar.  
  
They end up in a brightly lit shop with a palm tree painted on the wall and rainbow fans, each blade a different color. A family with three young, sticky-faced kids sits at the table next to them, squeals occasionally being emitted into the air.  
  
They buy their ice cream--birthday cake for Morgan, rocky road for Shawn--and spend a few minutes talking about life. Morgan tells him about Penn State and her nursing classes and he tells her about the places he's gone taking photos, the things he's seen.  
  
"So," she says when there's a lull in the conversation and an elephant in the room. "Talk to Cory much?"

She knows the answer's no. Cory spent ages talking to her mom about it last Christmas, Topanga looking on forlornly while Riley and Josh played upstairs. While her mom had been comforting and gentle, her father had told him maybe Shawn needed space to develop, that friendships were like that--you needed to be your own person.  
  
Cory hadn't liked that and before a fight could start, Morgan had excused herself to check on the kids, Topanga following quick at her heels. She's not sure what her parents said to Cory, but he hadn't brought up Shawn again and had been particularly affectionate toward Topanga, holding her hand at dinner and swinging an arm around her on the couch.  
  
Shawn takes the question in stride. "Here and there. It's hard because I'm always on the road, no permanent address."  
  
Morgan nods and purses her lips. "He misses you, Shawn."  
  
Shawn shrugs and stirs around the remains of his ice cream. "Kid, I don't know if you noticed, but Cory's got Topanga and Riley and--"  
  
"He _misses_ you."  
  
Shawn looks a bit lost at that and Morgan surges forward because she's tired of pretending she hasn't known for years how her brother feels about Shawn Hunter. "He's in love with you, idiot," she hisses.  
  
Shawn stares for a second, then starts choking on a bite of ice cream, which shouldn't even be possible. He hacks loud enough to be heard over the nearby toddler having a tantrum and the mom of said child turns around to ask if he's alright.  
  
"Fine," Shawn chokes out, glaring at Morgan. When the woman's turned away he says, "You don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"Were you at his wedding?"  
  
"He married Topanga. He told her he loved her."  
  
"And he spent the whole time crying over _you_!"  
  
Shawn sighs and rubs his forehead roughly. "We're not having this discussion."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I don't know," Shawn says sarcastically. "Because he's married? Because he has a daughter? Because you're his kid sister?"  
  
"I know because I'm his sister," Morgan says.  
  
It'd been that week he and Shawn hadn't talked that had cemented it. She's spent it joking that Shawn had dumped him and laughing, but on the last night before they made up, when she caught Cory sadly sipping tea at one in the morning, tears in his eyes, Morgan had realized that maybe this wasn't a joke, that maybe it was more real than anyone, especially Cory, wanted to acknowledge.  
  
She'd spent weeks observing them after that, watching how he and Shawn interacted and comparing it to him and Topanga. He smiled at both of them, grinned his Cory grin and made his Cory jokes. The difference, though, was the eyes. There was a light in them that only Shawn, not Topanga, could bring out.  
  
"Okay. So you think you know. And you just, what, assume I feel the same way and we should just ruin his marriage?"  
  
"You followed him like a puppy your whole life!"  
  
Shawn gives Morgan a stare. "You know, I forgot what a brat you were."  
  
Morgan shrugs. "Takes one to know one."  
  
"I'm not a..." Shawn trails off. "Listen, this conversation is over, alright? No more talk of me and Cory, okay? Things are what they are and for once I'm letting them be."  
  
Morgan sighs and lets him change the subject to his next destination. The conversation is over, for now.  
  
Later, Shawn insists on walking her back to the house she's staying because it's late and she's alone and Cory's baby sister. At the door, she gives him another hug, this time without the camera between them.  
  
"Who would have thought?" She says. "Me and you in Hawaii."  
  
"It's certainly no Philly," Shawn acknowledges, pushing back his hair. "Listen, take care, kid, okay?"  
  
"You too, Hunter," she says. "And call Cory, will you? Please. He's miserable without you."  
  
The _and you are too_ hangs in the air.  
  
Shawn gives her an unreadable look. "Maybe," he says.  
  
Morgan watches him walk away, thinking about home and memories so old they're covered in pixie dust. She remembers how they used to occasionally let her watch a scary movie with them, the three of them curled up on the couch. Cory always got more scared than her and Shawn and would bury his face in Shawn's shoulder.

Morgan sighs and shuts the door. She's got a puzzle to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!! 💟💟💟💟


End file.
